It was less than a half-hour after the Crew had beaten the Los Angeles Galaxy 4-1 last Saturday,
and midfielder Ethan Finlay was reclining in a chair in the locker room.

More than 20,000 fans were exiting Crew Stadium following a postgame fireworks show as Finlay
was finally enjoying some quiet. He was worn out after having just scored his sixth goal and fourth
assist of the season, and he was sporting an ice wrap on his right shin. But his enthusiasm for the
crowd was unaffected.

“It was electric,” he said. “To have that feeling with all those people in the stands cheering
for us, it shows an incredible amount of support.”

It was the latest sign of an improving appetite for tickets.

Twelve home games into the season, the Crew is averaging 16,155 fans, a figure that would be its
highest season average since 2004. If the Crew can maintain the pace over its final five home games
— starting tonight against the Houston Dynamo — it can surpass Crew Stadium’s inaugural season of
1999 for largest total attendance (283,129).

The Crew will have one more home game than it did that year, but the target is a goal that was
set by the sales staff before the season.

“Make no mistake, there’s work to be done, and we’d like to not just barely get past that
number, but we’d like to blow past that number,” said president of business operations Andy
Loughnane, who was hired last week. “I think that’s an important benchmark for this franchise. We’r
e looking for things to celebrate, and that’s something worthy of a celebration.”

In 2011, the Crew said it wanted to increase its season-ticket base to 10,000 and dubbed it “
Goal 10K.” Loughnane, who said the Major League Soccer average is about 9,000, would not disclose
how many season-ticket holders the Crew has now. Last season, the Crew surpassed 7,000, and that
number is believed to have grown by about 4.5 percent.

Loughnane said Goal 10K will be phased out as the Crew shifts more of its focus toward selling
out Crew Stadium. The Crew has had three sellouts this season and is tracking what would be a
team-record fourth on Sept. 20 — the night when retired team star Frankie Hejduk will be inducted
into the Crew’s Circle of Honor.

Season tickets are a part of that push, Loughnane said, but not the only part. Group sales and
individual game offers are part of achieving sellouts, too.

“Broadly speaking, we want to surpass 10,000 tickets, (and) we would love to be north of that,
but we’ve got to walk before we run,” Loughnane said. “When we get to the league average, we will
celebrate, and then we will advance toward that mark and set a new goal. Broadly speaking, our goal
is to sell out games.”

The win against the Galaxy marked only the second time that more than 20,000 fans at Crew
Stadium saw the Crew win. The last time was Sept. 1, 2001, a 4-1 win over New England.

“For me, it’s the best game I’ve ever been a part of,” said Eric Gehrig, in his fourth season
with the Crew. “The goals we scored, the fireworks, the crowd, it was just a perfect storm. Every
time something happened in the game, I could hear them.”

Coach Gregg Berhalter attributed some of the success to the Crew’s style of attacking
soccer.

“Winning is important, but we want to be essential to the community,” he said. “We want to be on
their minds and in their hearts every day. That’s a big part of it.

“You’re going to win some, you’re going to lose some, but the people walk away with a great
experience and walk away with a great relationship with the team, with the club and on top of that
we try to play good soccer that they enjoy watching.”